Kenyan Gen-Z Sparks a Wave of Youth-Led Global Protests for Good Governance

Moroccan GenZs during Anti-government protest in Rabat, Morocco: The Guardian 

As a year passes following the historic demonstration that saw Kenya's Gen-Z activists amending the controversial 2024 Finance Bill, youths all over the world are echoing the same demands for accountability, dignity, and good governance. From Antananarivo to Kathmandu, youth movements are using digital platforms to give a new face to protest, underscoring the common distance felt by this generation.

June and July 2024 witnessed protests in Kenya that were mainly mobilized on TikTok and X platforms. The protests titled "Occupy Parliament" opposed punitive taxation and corruption, forcing the government under President William Ruto to revise its policies. Analysts have since described Kenya as the origin of a new wave of digital activism initiatives.

The model resurfaced almost two years later in Nepal in September 2025 when thousands of youngsters protested against the imposition of a broad social media ban. Angry over the restriction of their livelihoods and political voice, demonstrators flooded the streets of Kathmandu, with the BBC and New Yorker reporting clashes that propelled the government into negotiations.

Late September protests over chronic shortages of water and electricity in the Malagasy capital forced President Andry Rajoelina to a cabinet dissolution. According to Reuters, the marches were youth-driven and fuelled by online campaigns reminiscent of Kenya’s digital mobilisation.

In late September, similar winds of change gusted through Morocco—with the GenZ 212 mob—after reports highlighting the utter misery of maternal healthcare put the whole of Morocco into an uproar. AP and Le Monde had mentioned TikTok and Discord channels channeling the energy of nationwide marches demanding better health and education services.

The grievances again differ in setting but remarkably remain similar: unemployment, high cost of living, crumbling public services, and corruption by politicians. In each case, social media acted both as a loudspeaker and an organiser, mutating scattered dissent into swift, nationwide response.

“Things that are being exposed are not isolated cases of unrest but a global dialogue led by youths,” Reuters analysts noted in late September. The expectations are clear: prompt and full reversals on policy, through accountable governance and structural reform that allows a restoration of public trust. 

And it remains to be seen whether governments engage or repress. But as the cases of Kenya, Nepal, Madagascar, and Morocco illustrate, a generation connected digitally and socially through the internet no longer stays quiet. With every hashtag and street march, Gen-Z makes leaders across the world face their shortcomings.

Timeline infographic 

The timeline illustrates how youth-led Gen-Z protests spread from Kenya in 2024 to Nepal, Madagascar, and Morocco in 2025. Despite different contexts, common themes of economic hardship, corruption, poor public services, and digital freedoms unite these movements. 

Sources: Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, The Guardian, Le Monde, Time, New Yorker.